Mission Statement

The mission of The Constitutional Sources Project is to increase understanding, facilitate research, and encourage discussion of the U.S. Constitution by connecting individuals — including students, teachers, lawyers and judges — with the documentary history of its creation, ratification, and amendment.

An Online Library of Constitutional History

The Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource) is revolutionizing the way people interact with history by democratizing access to source materials of the U.S. Constitution—letters, journals, newspapers, articles, speeches, and other first-hand records—so that any citizen can research and learn from the document’s rich intellectual history.

The countless letters, speeches and journals of the Framers and later Amenders of the Constitution are housed in hundreds of libraries and archives, as well as in private collections, throughout the United States and Europe. These documents together make the “best” history of our Constitution and its amendments over time. Yet many of these documents are virtually inaccessible to most of us, whether a fourth grader or a Supreme Court Justice. Even diligent researchers cannot gain access to all of them. As a result, far too many Americans lack an understanding of the ideas that influenced the Framers, many of which still lie at the root of current conversations and debates concerning our government and laws.

To address this lack of access, ConSource is building the preeminent online resource for constitutional research and education. Continually expanding in scope, it provides free public access to what is fast becoming the world’s most comprehensive online library of source documents related to the U.S. Constitution.

But ConSource is not stopping there. It is not enough to merely provide access to source documents. It is also necessary to provide the right tools to navigate the pages of history. To this end, the ConSource library includes a vibrant and growing cross-reference database, known as our Constitutional Index that allows users to explore historical documents related to each provision of the United States Constitution, Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments.

ConSource also creates research reports and educational resources to meet the specific needs of scholars and authors, legal practitioners and government officials, educators and students, journalists and the general public.

By connecting individuals to and facilitating discussion around the diverse ideas and documents that established the United States and have informed our progress, ConSource ensures that future generations will understand the principles of liberty espoused by the Declaration of Independence and enabled by the Constitution and its Amendments.

Current ConSource Collections

The Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Amendments 11 – 27

Precursors to the Constitution (including the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and Mayflower Compact, Magna Carta and English Bill of Rights)

Colonial charters and state constitutions before 1787

The Federalist Papers

Anti-Federalist and Pro-Federalist Papers

Constitutional Convention Records, including James Madison’s Notes of the Constitutional Convention and other records of the proceedings in Convention

Select correspondences between delegates to the Constitutional Convention

Women & the Constitution Collection (a collection that will bring to the fore the work of our nation's Founding mothers and their intellectual progeny)

Reconstruction-era Materials

Selected Educational and Legal Programs

PrimarySource – Education team members develop educational materials – like our popular “U.S. Constitution for Kids” – and work one-on-one with civic education organizations and educators to integrate primary source materials in to existing and planned classroom lesson plans and materials.

Virtual Supreme Court Competition – partnership with The Harlan Institute – The competition offers teams of two high school students the opportunity to research contemporary constitutional law issues, use primary source documents in constructing a legal argument, write persuasive appellate briefs, argue against other students through Google Video chats, and try to persuade a panel of esteemed attorneys during oral argument that their side is correct. You can register your students for the competition here.

Constitution Crash Course – half or full day crash course exploring the text, structure and history of the U.S. Constitution.

SCOTUSource – research opportunity for law students and attorneys interested in a deep exploration of the origins and history of contemporary constitutional issues. Research reports will be provided as a free educational resource to members of the legal community, the press, and the public.

Annual Capitol City Constitution Day Celebration

Please email info@consource.org to learn more about our planned collections or legal and educational programs.

need for proofreading (note that many spelling errors are from the original text)

other errors

Documents with many errors may be the result of automatic conversion from a scan. Mark such documents as in-need of more thorough proofreading.

Volunteer and Research Opportunities

Legal Fellowships for law and graduate students

Research fellowships related to particular document collections and select constitutional topics for undergraduate and graduate students

Civic Education Fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students

Business Development Internships for undergraduate and graduate students

To learn more about these volunteer internships and fellowships, as well as other volunteer opportunities, please email ConSource National Volunteer and Internship Coordinator, Megan Johnson at meg.johnson@consource.org.

Academic Advisory Board

Chair: Dr. John Kaminski, Editor, Documentary History of the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution
Prof. Randy E. Barnett, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory, Georgetown University Law Center
Susanna Dokupil, Assistant Solicitor General, Office of the Attorney General of Texas
Ralph Ketcham, Emeritus, Syracuse University
Dr. Gordon Lloyd, Professor of Public Policy, Pepperdine University Prof.
Tara Ross, Esq., Author
Lisa Grow Sun, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University Law School
Dr. James Taylor, Editor, John Adams Papers

Contact Us

Help Digitize Constitutional History

Please consider supporting our work to make constitutional history more accessible to and understandable by the American public. ConSource is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible.